To me, one of the most exciting
parts of finishing a book is the prospect of starting a new one. Choosing books is one of my favorite things
to do in the world, and there is a plethora of ways in which I choose books. Sometimes I catch wind of a good one on the
radio or on the internet. Also, there
are so many books that I learned about in college that I never got a chance to
read, which leads to the never-ending list of canonical books that always gives
me options. A lot of the time, its just
something that my sister recommends to me (I trust her literary opinion implicitly). My favorite way to pick a new book, however,
is to just go to a bookstore and browse.
I look through the sections and judge books by their covers (which I
know you aren’t supposed to do, but we all do it anyway), I read various summaries
and criticisms while smelling the pages of an unknown book (few things smell
better than a good book), and I am a sucker for those displays that they put up
in Barnes and Noble. You know, the kind
that says, “perfect for a day at the beach,” or, “buy two, get one free!” I fall for it every time, helpless consumer
that I am.
In
choosing these books, however, there is one thing that I have tried to be more
aware of in recent years in large part due to conversations with my brother of
recognizing my own privilege. It is easy
to fall into the trap of reading only great, white, straight, male
authors. It’s true, some of these
authors are undoubtedly fantastic. David
Foster Wallace was a genius, Vonnegut was the voice of a generation, Steinbeck
holds my heart! I definitely got stuck
in the white-straight-male author trap for a few years. Nevertheless, I feel that, as readers, we
need to dive into all types of literature from all types of people in order to
truly see the art of written word in every possible form. In this light, I have made efforts to
diversify my book choices and it has been one of the best things I have ever
done. With this in mind, this list is
filled with incredible books from a series of authors that are as different as
the art that they created. And each one
is just as amazing as the next.
1. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This
book was fantastic. It is a letter from
the author written to his son about struggling with the falsehoods of race in
America and everything that goes with it.
Coates manages to take a caustic and incendiary topic and deconstructs
it to an incredibly accessible level with the most considerate yet powerful
prose written in recent years. As Coates
pours through subjects such as slavery, police shootings, gang violence, or
just day-to-day racism and bigotry he manages to weave a perspective that elucidates
everyone’s role in this struggle whether they be people who claim to be white,
people who are black, or anyone in between.
As Toni Morrison herself says, “This is required reading,” especially
for anyone who does not know where they stand or what to do with these issues.
2. Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie
This
story is the delightful tale of a young boy named Haroun who sets off on an
adventure to save the fantastical “Sea of Stories,” which has been mysteriously
poisoned. He has a personal investment
in saving the Sea because his father is one of the few storytellers in the
world and he has lost his abilities due to the adulteration of the fountainhead
to the sea. With whimsical style,
Rushdie floods this narrative with magical imagery that dances off the page yet
remains grounded, somehow, in the reality of how important stories are to the
world at large. Filled with folklore and
fantasy, this is a modern classic for anyone to enjoy.
3. Vampires in the Lemon Grove, by Karen Russell
Karen
Russell is a dizzying author who delves into realms of magical realism with
power and confidence. This is her second
collection of short stories, published after her acclaimed novel Swamplandia! (which is also incredible
and you should definitely read that too), and it allows us as readers to fall
even deeper into a rabbit hole of fantastical yet nostalgic worlds with
truthfully disturbing characters that are scarily accessible. Stories such as women being forced to turn
into shocking chimeras that must make silk, all for an empire that they don’t
believe in anymore, or the barn where most presidents go as horses when their
term is over, or even two vampires forced to eat lemons as they try to keep
their love for each other and life itself alive. Russell is a joy to read and a contemporary
author like no other.
4. The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri
This
Pulitzer Prize winning novel opens up by describing the swampland that
separates two ponds in an area of Calcutta.
This “Lowland” acts as the driving metaphor that explodes into a subtle
yet visceral account of the lives of two brothers which begins in India. However, as close as they are, they couldn’t
be more different. Through conflicting
political, academic, and philosophical ideologies, the brothers grow apart,
just like the swampland that dries up in between the two ponds that expands as
drought and famine affects Calcutta.
They are thrown into their separate worlds with different problems, love
interests, and the like, but are constantly bound through a relationship that
distance or differing ideologies could never sever. Traveling through tumultuous times and
political unrest in India as well as the United States, the brothers are forced
to play out their fates and grapple with ultimate tragedy, all the while trying
to hold on to hope. Lahiri dazzles with this powerful tale.
5. This Is How You Lose Her, by Junot Díaz
This
collection of short stories is told from the perspective of the infamous Yunior
from Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize winning The
Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
Yunior is, at face value, a skeez-bag womanizer who never gets anything
right and only cares about himself.
Through these stories, however, the reader is shown a callused view of relationships
and love and is left with a startling realization to not only what intimacy
should be, but also how adulterated it has become for so many. We as readers go through Yunior’s troubled
romantic history and are forced to feel his emotions, his frustrations, and his
heartaches as he attempts to figure out how to love from a young boy all the
way to an older man. Díaz, as usual,
delivers with his singular prose that is filled with curse words, life,
Spanglish, and truth in this delightful yet heartbreaking series of stories.
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